Time Grows Short In Battle Over Striker-replacement Bill

Labor Yet Again Looks Shy Of Votes Needed In Senate

WASHINGTON — Bill Klinefelter is trolling America from his office cubbyhole for tales of lives hurt and jobs lost forever in strikes.

He is calling one union after another, but the names are not coming so swiftly. Outside, the air clings like hot, thick soup. It's been a very long day. He has no time to waste.

Still, Klinefelter, a middle-aged onetime steel worker who is now a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, appears calm. That's because he is sure the names are out there.

Klinefelter has spent two years lobbying for a bill considered the most critical for big labor in nearly a generation. After endless meetings with labor, religious, civil rights and women's groups, cheering others on when hopes were frail, traipsing to congressional offices with with one local delegation after another, he knows he has done his very best.

"At the end of the day, I want to be able to legitimately say I covered all my bases," he said.

That feeling is shared with as much conviction by the business community as the showdown looms this week in the U.S. Senate on the fate of companies' right to fire striking workers, set by a 56-year-old Supreme Court ruling.

Under the bill, companies would no longer be able to permanently replace striking union members. The dispute has been working its way through Congress for the last five years. Twice passed by the House, it died in the Senate two years ago when its backers could not overcome a Republican-led filibuster.

President Bush vowed to veto the bill if it reached his desk. Now, however, the bill has President Clinton's support, and so the business community is doing all it can to help defeat the bill. Debate is expected to begin in the Senate as soon as Wednesdsay.

If their right to fire workers is restricted, businesses predict a new wave of strikes, higher wage agreements and, ultimately, the overseas flight of some companies to avoid union squabbles.

The unions say companies' increased threat to wipe away strikers' jobs has chilled their will to strike, thwarted their organizing and given business the upper hand in labor-management dealings.

By most counts, the unions are likely to lose.

Those backing the unions do not have the 60 votes needed to halt the filibuster threatened by the Republicans and conservative Democrats. But the outcome is unsure. The unions could win if they can pry loose two or three votes.

The business community is afraid the unions will work out a compromise and lure enough rvotes to stop a filibuster.

To be sure, once the filibuster begins, there will be a push for a compromise, say union leaders. Said AFL-CIO chief lobbyist Bob McGlotten, "Some relief is better than nothing at all."

"The issue is still in balance. There is not much room for error," said Harold Coxson, an attorney who heads the Alliance to Keep Americans Working, an organization set up in 1990 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to coordinate the drive against the law.

Why is organized labor pushing for a vote when it might suffer another black-eye in Congress? Such a defeat would surely feed its image as a loser.

"The feeling is `Let's do it. Let's go ahead,' " said Peter diCicco, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO's industrial department.

After pumping up the nation's 14 million union members on the importance of the law to workers and organized labor, it was time to count their friends and enemies in Congress, say union leaders.

And so, "replaced" workers and their families are Washington-bound this week for demonstrations.

Klinefelter is hurrying to finish the list of names so that during the Senate debate, as supporters of the bill read a list of 20,000 workers permanently replaced over the years, they will be able to pause for stories about some of the workers.

Union leaders, who were deeply angered by the White House's lobbying for passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement last year, are watching to see if Clinton keeps his word and helps out this time.

White House officials say their campaign will be a low-key, behind-doors effort. And when the time comes, the president will make the telephone calls to the right senators to ask for their votes, say White House aides.

He cannot guarantee the votes, they add. Only ask for them.

The administration has not changed the minds of Arkansas' two conservative Democratic senators, according to their staffs. Sens. Dale Bumpers and David Pryor have consistently sided with the Republicans and business community on the issue.

In addition to keeping tabs on the vote, lobbyists and representatives for both sides are preparing speeches to be given during a possible filibuster, making last-minute calls to make sure promised votes haven't disappeared and gossiping about who has said what to whom and who needs help understanding the issue.

The National Right to Work Committee recently took actor Charlton Heston to visit senators whose votes are considered crucial. He also has appeared in television advertisements the group plans to run in seven states.